"What are the Benefits and Functions of Alum (White Vitriol)?"
Efficacy of Alum
Alum possesses potent protein coagulation abilities, making it clinically useful for anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, antiperspirant, antidiarrheal, and hardening agent purposes. It exhibits a broad-spectrum antibacterial effect against various Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative bacilli, certain anaerobic bacteria, dermatophytes, and Candida albicans, with varying degrees of efficacy. Notably, it significantly inhibits Trichomonas vaginalis, as well as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. Alum is injected through the urethra for hemostasis, promotes ulcer healing, and purifies turbid water. It functions as an expectorant, desiccant, antidiarrheal, hemostatic, detoxifier, and insecticide, treating conditions such as epilepsy, sore throat, guilt feelings, hepatitis, jaundice, edema, gastric and duodenal ulcers, uterine prolapse, leucorrhea, diarrhea, hemorrhage, tongue sores, hemorrhoids, scabies, burns, scalds, and insect bites.
Traditional medicinal texts also mention its uses:
Bencao Jing (The Classic of Herbal Medicine): Treats cold-heat diarrhea, white vaginal discharge, genital ulcers, eye pain, and toothaches.
Bielu (Supplement to the Classic of Herbal Medicine): Removes persistent heat from the bone marrow and nasal polyps.
Yaoxing Lun (Treatise on the Nature of Medicinal Substances): Treats rat-bite abscesses, epistaxis, and sore throats.
Rihuazi Bencao (Rihuazi's Materia Medica): Relieves wind and fatigue, eliminates phlegm and thirst, and warms the water passages. Treats aphonia caused by stroke and scabies. Used with peach kernels and onion soup for sweating.
Bencao Yanyi (Elucidation of the Materia Medica): Burnt into powder, it is applied to ingrown toenails and bleeding gums.
Bencao Mengyong (Introduction to Materia Medica): Stops diarrhea, relieves toothaches, and treats rectal prolapse and hemorrhoids. Applies to abscesses to draw out moisture.
Yixue Rumen (Introduction to Medicine): Treats abscesses from stroke, red eyes, pterygium, tongue ulcers, swollen and bleeding teeth, chronic sores, acute throat disorders, heart and lung heat, drooling, thirst, and diarrhea. Also treats injuries from snakes, scorpions, dogs, wall lizards, and donkey saliva, as well as horse sweat poisoning.
Compendium of Materia Medica: Induces vomiting, treats excessive saliva, phosphorus poisoning, relieves dampness and detoxifies, stops bleeding and pain, erodes necrotic tissue, promotes tissue regeneration, and treats abscesses, carbuncles, sores, epilepsy, jaundice, urinary problems, oral and eye diseases, and injuries from tigers, snakes, scorpions, and various insects.
Yilin Huiyao (Essentials of Medical Literature): Used raw for detoxification and calcined for promoting tissue growth and removing moisture. Its internal use treats long-term diarrhea, hematochezia, uterine bleeding, epilepsy, and mania. A 1% alum solution dripped into the trachea, combined with anti-tuberculosis drugs, shows efficacy in 19 cases of infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis, particularly in exudative lesions.
Special Precautions: Those with yin deficiency and weak stomach, or without damp-heat symptoms, should avoid taking alum.
